Monday, 25 July 2011

You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger

Film/DVD

Woody Allen has come back to London to work some of his magic in a film, unsurprisingly, about relationships.

Actually, this one was quite charming.

At first I was extremely worried. The opening scene has Gemma Jones doing some of the worst over-acting I’ve ever seen, distractingly terrible. I’ve seen interviews with Jones subsequently saying she never received any direction from Woody Allen, and if this is true I am stunned he didn’t step in and sort her out, she is a proven actress but gets it all wrong throughout this film. I hate to say this, but the same can be said of Anthony Hopkins, who is also off colour in this one.

Despite the performances, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger is quite an entertaining little watch. Naomi Watts, oh, actually she is also quite poor in this…Erm, Antonio Banderas is ok and Freida Pinto is quiet and beautiful.

All right, forget most of the performances…if you can overcome some of the hopeless acting You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger has the usual human interplay and angst we’ve come to love from Woody Allen movies.

Not a film that will fill you with the joys of life, but a playful tale about a handful of people who all want to take from life without putting that much into it.